The Breguet Alize & Fairey Gannet

v2.0.1 / 01 apr 02 / greg goebel / public domain

* Both the French and the British developed their own carrier-based
antisubmarine warfare (ASW) aircraft in the postwar period. The French
Breguet Type 1050 "Alize (Tradewind)" provided over 40 years of service to
the French Navy's air arm, the Aeronavale, over 40 years of service, and the
type was also used for over two decades by the Indian Navy. The British
Fairey "Gannet" had a number of ingenious features, and served both in the
ASW and airborne early warning (AEW) roles.

* In 1948, the Breguet firm of France began design of a new carrier-based
attack aircraft for the Aeronavale, the French naval air arm. The first
prototype of this design, the Breguet "Type 960-1 Vultur", flew on 3 August
1951.

The Br.960-1 was powered by an Armstrong Siddeley Mamba A.S.Ma.1 turboprop
engine with 980 horsepower, mounted in the nose and driving a four-bladed
propeller for cruise flight, and a Rolls-Royce Nene 101 centrifugal-flow
turbojet with 2,200 kilograms (4,850 pounds) thrust, fitted in the tail for
takeoff and combat power. The Vultur's Nene engine was license-built by
Hispano-Suiza.

The Br.960-1 was followed by a second prototype, the "Br.960-2", which first
flew on 15 September 1952. It was powered by a Mamba A.S.Ma.3 turboprop with
1,320 horsepower and a Nene 103 turbojet with 2,270 kilograms (5,000 pounds)
thrust.

The Vultur was a low-wing aircraft, with the wing featuring a swept leading
edge and a straight trailing edge, and folding at the middle. The aircraft
had tricycle landing gear, with the main gear hinged in the wings just inside
the wing fold and retracting towards the fuselage, and the nose gear
retracting backwards.

The Vultur accommodated a pilot and copilot sitting side-by-side in a framed
canopy. A typical warloads was a single 1 tonne (2,200 pound) bomb and eight
rockets. It was fitted with radar in a pod on the right wingtip, balanced by
a fuel tank on the left wingtip. A large search radar could also be attached
under the fuselage.

However, the Aeronavale decided that they were more interested in a
carrier-based ASW aircraft. The Vultur never entered production, instead
being extensively redesigned for the ASW role as the Breguet "Type 1050
Alize", which performed its first flight on 5 October 1956.

It appears that one of the Vultur prototypes was modified to act as a systems
testbed for the Alize and designated "Type 965", but details of this aircraft
are extremely unclear.

* The Alize ended up looking much different from the Vultur. The general
configuration was similar, but the turbojet was deleted from the rear
fuselage, to be replaced by a CSF radar system with a retractable antenna
dome in the belly. The Mamba turboprop was replaced by a Rolls-Royce "Dart
RDa.21" turboprop with 2,100 horsepower, driving a four-bladed propeller.

The fuselage was extensively redesigned and enlarged to accommodate more gear
and a crew of three, including pilot, radar operator, and sensor operator.
The pilot was seated in front on the right, the radar operator in front on
the left, and the sensor operator sat sideways behind them.

The landing gear was modified so that the main gear retracted backwards into
nacelles in redesigned wings. The main gear had dual wheels, and the front
part of the nacelles accommodated sonobuoys. The Alize had a yoke-style
arresting hook.

* A total of 89 examples of the Alize were built between 1957 and 1962,
including two preproduction prototypes. 75 production aircraft were acquired
by the Aeronavale, with initial service delivery in March 1959. The Alize
went into operation on the carriers CLEMENCEAU and FOCH, and were also used
in shore-based training. 12 were acquired by the Indian Navy.

Some sources say that there were five preproduction prototypes, which may
mean some of the prototypes were brought up to production standard and passed
on to the Aeronavale; and that India acquired 17 examples, which hints that
they bought five used aircraft from the Aeronavale.

The Indian Navy operated the Alize from shore bases and from the light
carrier VIKRANT. The Alize was used for reconnaissance and patrol during
India's 1961 occupation of Portugese Goa, and was also used for ASW patrol
during the Indo-Pakistan War of 1971, during which one Alize was shot down by
a Pakistani F-104 Starfighter. The Alize dwindled in numbers in the Indian
Navy during the 1980s, was relegated to shore-based patrol in 1987, and was
finally phased out in 1991, replaced in their duties by ASW helicopters.

* The Aeronavale provided the Alize with a series of upgrades. An upgrade
program in the early 1980s refitted 28 of the aircraft to the "Br.1050M"
standard, featuring improved Thomson-CSF Iguane radar as used on the
Atlantique NG ocean-patrol aircraft, new OMEGA radio navigation gear, and a
new ARAR 12 radar and radio location ("electronic support measures / ESM")
system.

Another upgrade program in the early 1990s fitted 24 of these aircraft with a
new decoy system, a microcomputer-based data processing system that could
have hardly been imagined when the aircraft was new, a datalink system, and
other new avionics. Later in the decade, they were fitted with the
Thomson-CSF TTD Optronique Chlio forward-looking infrared (FLIR) imaging
sensor. Despite the upgrades, by this time the Alize was clearly not up to
the task of hunting modern nuclear submarines, and it was tasked with ocean
surface patrol.

As late as 1997, the Aeronavale was still operating 24 examples for surface
patrol, though they were clearly on their way out by then. The Alize was
used operationally during the NATO air campaign against Serbia over Kosovo in
the spring of 1999, with the aircraft flying off the carrier FOCH. The last
Alize was finally withdrawn from service in 2000 with the retirement of the
FOCH.

* During World War II, the British Royal Navy's Fleet Air Arm (FAA) found
that carrier-based aircraft were an extremely capable weapon for ASW. The
result was the issue of a "GR.17/45" requirement for a carrier-based ASW
aircraft in 1945.

The US Navy was focusing on "hunter-killer" teams of aircraft at the time,
with one aircraft carrying search radar and other sensors to locate a
submarine and the other to carry rockets, depth charges, and homing torpedoes
to sink it. This was partly due to the fact that the sensors were very bulky
at the time, making cramming both sensors and weapons on the same machine a
difficult prospect for a carrier-based aircraft.

The GR.17/45 requirement was more ambitious, possibly too much so, specifying
a single two-seat aircraft that could act both as hunter and killer. Both
Fairey and Blackburn submitted designs for the competition, and in August
1946 were both awarded contracts for two prototypes from each company.

* The Fairey submission was originally designated the "Fairey Q" or "Fairey
17", after the requirement, and performed its initial flight on 19 September
1949. It was a hefty aircraft, with a barrel-like fuselage to accommodate
sensors and weapons, and was powered by the Armstrong-Siddeley "Double Mamba"
turboprop engine.

The Double Mamba was actually two turboprop engines driving a common gearbox,
which in turn drove a contrarotating propeller system, with four blades per
propeller. One of the turboprop engines could be shut down for economical
cruise flight, and if one of the engines failed the aircraft would not suffer
from the handling problems associated with asymmetric power.

Fairey had pioneered the concept starting before World War II with the "P.24
Prince" double piston engine, which had been test-flown in a Fairey Battle
light bomber. Various nations had experimented with such double engines
during the war, but with little success. The Double Mamba was one of the
first such schemes to prove workable, though now double turboshafts are
fairly common powerplants for helicopters.

The Fairey 17 suffered from some handling problems, but these were corrected
with a few aerodynamic modifications, and carrier deck trials began in the
spring of 1950, with the Fairey 17 performing the first landing of a
turboprop aircraft on a carrier, the HMS ILLUSTRIOUS, on 19 June 1950.

* The Blackburn submission was designated the "B-54" or "YA.7". It was of
similar configuration but powered initially by a Rolls-Royce Griffon piston
engine with 2,000 horsepower driving contra-rotating propellers, the intended
Napier Double Naiad turboprop intended to power the original "YA.5" design
having been cancelled. Initial flight was on 20 September 1949, a day after
the flight of the Fairey 17.

Then the Admiralty changed the direction of both programs by adding a new
requirement for area search radar and three seats. Blackburn responded with
a second prototype, the "YA.8", with the three seats and a retractable
"dustbin" radome under the tail. The wings and tail were modified to deal
with the aerodynamic changes. It retained the Griffon engine.

The YA.8 led to a third prototype, the "B-88" or "YB.1", which was similar
but had a Double Mamba engine, and performed its first flight on 19 July
1950. This aircraft had a wingspan of 13.46 meters (44 feet 2 inches), a
length of 13 meters (42 feet 8 inches), a height of 5.11 meters (16 feet 9
inches), a maximum takeoff weight of 5,940 kilograms (13,090 pounds), a top
speed of 515 KPH (320 MPH), and an endurance of over three hours. The gull
wings had a double fold mechanism for compact carrier stowage.

* The request to add radar and a third seat had also led Fairey to build a
third prototype with the necessary changes, which performed its first flight
on 10 May 1951. Although the Blackburn and Fairey designs were very
comparable and in fact similar in many ways, the Fairey submission won the
award, to be given the name "Gannet", with an Admiralty order for a hundred
aircraft. The three Blackburn prototypes did continue to fly as test and
trials aircraft for a few more years.

The ambitious nature of the Gannet led to various development hangups, but
the first production "Gannet AS.1 (Anti-Submarine Mark 1)" flew in October
1953 and finally entered FAA service in 1955, almost ten years after the
issue of the initial requirement.

* The Gannet was a tubby aircraft, generally regarded as ugly but to some
eyes endearing, like a quirky wind-up toy. The fuselage had a big weapons
bay to accommodate two torpedoes or other stores, for a total of 900
kilograms (2,000 pounds) of munitions, and a retractable radome for search
radar under the rear fuselage. Some sources claim the Gannet could be fitted
with underwing stores pylons to carry rocket projectiles or sonar buoys, but
though this is very plausible, pictures of this configuration are very
difficult to find.

The exhausts for the Double Mamba Mark 100 engine system, with a total of
2,950 horsepower, were fitted behind the wings, which were gull-shaped and
had a double fold to allow them to meet elevator width and hangar height
limits. Addition of an extendable dustbin radome for the search radar had
led to some lateral instability, and so auxiliary finlets were fitted to the
horizontal tailplane late in development to correct the problem. The same
effect could have been obtained by raising the height of the vertical
tailplane, but that option ran into hangar height limits.

The Gannet had tricycle landing gear, with twin-wheeled nose gear retracting
backwards and single-wheel main gear retracting from the wings toward the
fuselage. The aircraft had a stinger-type arresting hook. The Gannet's
three crew sat in tandem, with pilot, observer-navigator, and radio-radar
operator in their own cockpits, the radio-radar operator's seat facing the
tail of the aircraft. The third prototype had differed from this
configuration in placing both the "back seaters" in a single cockpit.

A total of 181 Gannet AS.1s were built. A "Gannet T.2" conversion trainer
was also developed to help train pilots on dealing with the eccentricities of
the Double Mamba relative to a piston engine, and to handle antisubmarine
munitions. The T.2 featured a flight instructor in the middle cockpit with
full backup flight controls and a periscope for forward view. The radar was
deleted, but the rear cockpit was retained for a radio operator. The first
T.2 performed its initial flight on 16 August 1954, and 38 were built.

In 1956, an improved Double Mamba "Mark 101" with 3,035 horsepower was
introduced into Gannet production. The designations of aircraft fitted with
this engine were updated to "Gannet AS.4", with initial flight in 1956, and
"Gannet T.5", with initial flight in 1957. 75 AS.4s and 8 T.5s were built in
all, and some existing AS.1s and T.2s were also updated to the improved
standard.

A number of Gannets were provided to foreign air arms. The Royal Australian
Navy ordered 40 Gannets in late 1952, with deliveries beginning in 1955.
Only 36 were actually delivered, including 33 AS.1s and three T.2s. They
were operated off the carrier MELBOURNE and from shore bases. The West
German naval air arm, the MarineFlieger, obtained 15 AS.4s and a single T.5,
operating them from shore bases as the MarineFlieger didn't have any
carriers.

The Australian and German Gannets were all new-build aircraft, included in
the production totals given previously. Indonesia also obtained 16 AS.4s and
two T.5s, rebuilt from Royal Navy AS.1s and T.2s.

* The British FAA had operated the Douglas AD-4W Skyraider airborne early
warning (AEW) aircraft, and to replace the Skyraiders awarded Fairey a
contract to adapt the Gannet to the role. The result was the "Gannet AEW.3",
which first flew in August 1958. Although the original idea was a "minimum
modification" of the Gannet AS airframe, as often happens in such
circumstances one thing led to another, and the airframe ended up being
largely redesigned.

The pilot cockpit was moved forward, and two radar operators were seated in
the rear fuselage, with side doors for access. The exhausts for the Double
Mamba were moved up in front of the wing to make space for the radar
operators. There was a large radome under the fuselage, fitted with APS-20
radar salvaged from the FAA Skyraiders and flanked by extended stalky landing
gear to provide clearance for takeoff. The vertical tailplane was raised in
height to aerodynamically compensate for the radome.

The Gannet AEW.3 was powered by a Double Mamba Mk.102 with 3,875 horsepower.
Initial flight was in August 1958. A total of 44 were built into 1961, by
which time Fairey had been absorbed into Westland. The final Gannet AEW.3
was rolled out in December 1962, and was the last fixed-wing aircraft built
by the company. Total Gannet production was 349 aircraft, including
prototypes.

* By the end of the 1950s, the Royal Navy was beginning to see the utility of
helicopters such as the Whirlwind for fleet ASW defence, and the AS.1 and
AS.4 were out of fleet service by mid-1960. Some AS.4s were modified to an
electronic countermeasures (ECM) trainer configuration and redesignated
"ECM.6", apparently also referred to as the "AS.6". Others were modified to
a "carrier onboard delivery (COD)" cargo and personnel transport
configuration and redesignated "COD.4". Some sources also mention an "AS.7"
update but give no details, and this variant appears bogus.

The ECM.6 and COD.4 served well into the 1960s. The Gannet AEW.3 served into
1977. When the AEW.3 was obsoleted, the APS-20 radars were salvaged again,
this time being fitted to equally antiquated Shackleton airframes to result
in the "Shackleton AEW.2". This was a decidedly stopgap solution until
Britain obtained the Boeing E-3D AWACS aircraft from the US, and is another,
somewhat untidy, story.

The German Gannets were phased out in 1965, to be replaced by the Breguet
Atlantique. The Australian Gannets were phased out in 1967, to be replaced
by the Grumman S-2 Tracker. Two Gannets served as industry test and trials
aircraft for a time after their military service. A number of Gannets
survive on static display, but at least for the moment none are
flight-worthy.

* One of the interesting footnotes to the Gannet story was that the British
built a second, "light" ASW aircraft in the same period, the "Short SB.6
Seamew", intended to operate off of light carriers for protection of convoys
or naval battle groups.

The Seamew was the result of a requirement issued by the British Admiralty in
1951, with the initial prototype flying in 1951. The prototypes were
followed by a production order for 41 aircraft, including several "SC.2
Seamew Mark IIs" for the RAF.

The Seamew was as odd-looking or more so than the Gannet, with a deep,
relatively narrow fuselage, a two-placed cockpit perched very high to give
the crew a good view, a radome directly under the cockpit, and fixed
"taildragger" landing gear. It had mid-mounted wings, a conventional tail
assembly, and was powered by a single Mamba turboprop engine with 1,590
horsepower. The Seamew had a wingspan of 16.76 meters (55 feet), a maximum
takeoff weight of 6,800 kilograms (15,000 pounds), and a top speed of 380 KPH
(235 MPH).

The Seamew's handling was said to have left something to be desired, and
despite work to improve matters the aircraft never proved very satisfactory.
Only 19 of the production batch had been completed, with only seven delivered
to the Royal Navy, when the program was cancelled in 1957. The cancellation
was apparently for reasons of cost, but it is likely in hindsight that the
Seamew was faced with imminent obsolescence by the ASW helicopter anyway.

* Sources include:

THE JET AIRCRAFT OF THE WORLD by William Green and Roy Cross, Hanover
House, 1955.

THE ILLUSTRATED ENCYCLOPEDIA OF 20TH CENTURY WEAPONS AND WARFARE, edited
by Bernard Fitzsimons, 1978 edition.

MODERN WARPLANES by Doug Richardson, Crescent Books, 1982.

"Aeronautique Navale: French Naval Aviation", WORLD AIR POWER JOURNAL,
Summer 1997, 138:145.

A number of websites, particularly Damien Burke's THUNDER & LIGHTNINGS site,
were consulted on the Gannet. Incidentally, different sources seem to give
ridiculously different numbers for Gannet production, and the figures given
here have to be considered little more than a guess.